BBH Graduate Students
Marina Armendariz | Doctoral Candidate | mpa5220@psu.edu
M.S., Biobehavioral Health, The Pennsylvania State University
B.A., Psychology, California State University (CSU), Dominguez Hills
Research Interests: Latino health; health disparities; place and health; chronic inflammation and cardiometabolic health outcomes
Jasmine Caulfield | Doctoral Candidate | joc5376@psu.edu
Research Interests:
Kristin Davis | Doctoral Candidate | kmd74@psu.edu
Research Interests:
Natasha DeMeo | Doctoral Candidate | nnd7@psu.edu
Research Interests:
Laura Etzel (Mayer) | Doctoral Candidate | lcm53@psu.edu
M.Ed., Education Administration, 2014, Willimington University
B.A., Biological Sciences, 2010, University of Delaware
Research Interests: Biological embedding of psychological processes throughout development, Bidirectional influence between psychological processes and immune system functioning, Integration of multi-omics data, Systems biology approach to understanding aging and disease development.
Emily Fair | Doctoral Candidate | euf251@psu.edu
B.A., Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
M.A., Thanatology, Hood College, Frederick, M.D.
M.A., Psychology, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.
Research Interests: The influence of interoception (perception of bodily state) on affect and behavior, in the context of bodily states such as subjective intoxication and within the context of chronic diseases such as addiction. Emily is interested in a broad range of methodologies to investigate these associations, such as ambulatory assessment, Bayesian statistics and methods that bled person-specific time series modeling and group-level inference from person-specific results.
Leslie Ford| Doctoral Candidate | lbf5170@psu.edu
MPH, Western Kentucky University
Graduate Certificate, Environmental Health, Western Kentucky University
MSc, Water Management, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education
B.S., Health Sciences: Health Services, Western Kentucky University
Research Interests: Relationship between water and health, looking primarily at how environmental and social factors influence water distributions and water procuring behaviors in marginalized and underrepresented communities
Prescilla Garcia-Trevizo| Doctoral Candidate | pjg5435@psu.edu
B.S. The University of Texas at El Paso, Cellular and Molecular Biochemistry
Research Interests: Genetic and environmental factors underlying the effects of nicotine use on learning and memory.
Sarah Gioia | Doctoral Candidate | sag5221@psu.edu
B.A. Penn State University, Psychology
Research Interests: Discrimination in healthcare towards sexual and racial minorities and effects these experiences have on health behaviors
Waylon Hastings | Doctoral Candidate | wjh180@psu.edu
Graduate Certificate, Penn State Universtiy, Applied Bioinformatics
M.S., Texas A&M University, Educational Administration
B.A., Texas A&M University, Mathematics
B.A.,Texas A&M University, Biochemistry & Genetics
Research Interests: Physiological and genomic indicators of stress and aging, measurement and quantification of biological age
Dusti Jones | Doctoral Candidate | dmj5352@psu.edu
M.S. in Experiential Psychology, Western Washington University
B.A. in Psychology, Western Washington University
Research Interests: Positive emotion, ambulatory assessment, stress-relevant health indicators, healthy aging
Emily Jones | Doctoral Candidate | ejj4@psu.edu
M.S., Biobehavioral Health, The Pennsylvania State University
M.S.Ed. and M.Phil.Ed., Professional Counseling, University of Pennsylvania
B.A., Psychology, The College of New Jersey
Research Interests: Psychological and physiological implications of psychological stress across development; individual and sociocultural risk factors and protective resources; health disparities; health and well-being of first-generation college students
Rodney Jones | Doctoral Candidate | rdj44@psu.edu
Research Interests:
Fernanda Lugo | Doctoral Candidate | fzl69@psu.edu
B.S. in Biological Sciences & Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at El Paso
Research Interests: Clinical and Translational Science, Public and Global Health, Chronic inflammatory disease, and Environmental health
Marzieh Majd | Doctoral Candidate | mum366@psu.edu
Research Interests:
Frank Materia | Doctoral Candidate | ftm5004@psu.edu
M.S. The Pennsylvania State University, Biobehavioral Health
Graduate Certificate, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Translational Science
M.H.S. Saint Francis University, Clinical Health Science
B.S. The Pennsylvania State University, Biobehavioral Health
Research Interests: Mobile Health (mHealth), Implementation Science, Clinical and Translational Science, Intervention/Treatment Acceptability
Gina Mathew | Doctoral Candidate | gmm42@psu.edu
Research Interests:
Brooke Mattern | Doctoral Candidate | bcm5214@psu.edu
B.S., Penn State University, Biological Anthropology
A.A., Harrisburg Area Community College, Social Science
Research Interests: Psychosocial parameters and immune function; Sex and gender differences in immune response; Women's health issues and immune function across the menstrual cycle
Hridya Rao | Doctoral Candidate | hcr5065@psu.edu
M.A., Wake Forrest University, Bioethics, Class of 2019
B.Tech Biotechnology, Vellore Institute of Technology, India, Class of 2017
Research Interests: Genetic aspects of infectious diseases, reproductive diseases, population genetics
David Reichenberger | Doctoral Candidate | dar548@psu.edu
Research Interests:
Jessica Salas-Brooks | Doctoral Candidate | jis5940@psu.edu
Research Interests:
Laurel Seemiller | Doctoral Candidate | lrs5307@psu.edu
Research Interests:
Constanza Silva Gallardo | Doctoral Candidate | cjs6251@psu.edu
M.S. The Pennsylvania State University, Biobehavioral Health
Graduate Certificate in Applied Bioinformatics, The Pennsylvania State University, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
B.S. Universidad de Chile, Biological Anthropology
Research Interests: Behavioral Genomics, Tobacco and Alcohol Use, Reduced Nicotine-Content Cigarettes, Genomic Data Analysis, Big Data.
Andrea Stroup | Doctoral Candidate | ams5818@psu.edu
Research Interests:
Bradley Trager | Doctoral Candidate | bpt5091@psu.edu
Research Interests:
Rajiv Ulpe | rbu5004@psu.edu
Research Interests:
Katja Waldron | Doctoral Candidate | kaw666@psu.edu
B.S. University of Washington, Psychology
Research Interests: Behavioral interventions; Alcohol use prevention in young adults, Parenting styles as risk or protective factors for alcohol use; Racial, ethnic, and cultural differences
Dana Zeid | Doctoral Candidate | duz39@psu.edu
B.A. Marshall University, Psychology
Research Interests: Genetic vulnerability to cognitive changes associated with nicotine addiction; multi/transgenerational consequences of nicotine exposure; developmental sensitivity to nicotine addiction
